Designed by the Russian architect Victor Schröter with an exterior in the Renaissance Revival style, it was opened in 1901, replacing an earlier structure, the City Theatre [uk], that had been established in 1856, but destroyed by fire in 1896.

A group of artists founded a small theatre company and rented private premises on Khreshchatyk, and later in a house in Lypky.

The Kyiv premieres of Aleko by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1893) and The Snow Maiden by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1895) were performed at the opera house, under the direction of the composers.

[8] In February 1896, following a performance of Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, a fire started in one of the City Theatre dressing rooms.

[9] The fire destroyed the building, along with one of the Russian Empire’s largest music libraries and collections of costume and stage props.

[7] After the fire, the St. Petersburg Society of Architects [ru] announced an international competition to design a new opera house, built in stone.

September 16] 1901, with a performance of cantata Kyiv, especially composed by the Swedish Wilhelm Harteveld, and a presentation of A Life for the Tsar.

[1] A critic writing in Kievlyanin commented on the interior of the opera house, and the expense incurred in completing the new building: "The auditorium of the new theatre is quite comfortable, but most of the boxes are excessively narrow and uncomfortable.

And another question—860,000 rubles were spent on the construction of the theatre, which is 360,000 more than planned, why haven't the people of Kyiv been informed of the reasons for such outrageous overspends?

No matter how much public figures complain about the fact that we have a lack of hospitals, a million-dollar theatre has been built—the music lover triumphs!

[5] In June 1917, the First Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council on Ukraine's autonomy was proclaimed at the session of the Second All-Ukrainian Congress [uk] in the opera house.

[4] After the Soviets came to power, development of Ukrainian national culture ceased, and there were demands to permanently close the opera house.

Despite these demands, the efforts of cultural figures such as the Russian singer Leonid Sobinov meant that the opera company was saved.

[16] Between 1919 and 1939, the opera house received a succession of different names:[4][5] The first Ukrainian ballets, Pan Kanevsky [ru], by Mykhailo Verykivsky (1931), Ferenji, by Borys Yanovsky (1932).

[17] Resistance fighters in Kyiv planned to blow up the opera house to kill Nazi officers during a theatrical performance, and mined the basement.

[20] A huge hole was excavated several stories deep in the square outside, in which a new power plant, ventilation machinery, and a wardrobe was installed.

It was planned that Kyiv's coat of arms, along with the city's patron saint, the Archangel Michael would be placed on the roof above the entrance.

[1] After protests from the Metropolitan of Kyiv, Theognostus [uk] who declared that placing an image the saint would be blasphemy.,[22] an allegoric composition consisting of griffins holding a lyre was used instead.

[1] In 1905, busts of Glinka and the Russian composer Alexander Serov were donated by the Directorate of Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg [ru], and installed on either side of the central arch.

[4][note 2] During the 1988 restoration, a bronze bust of Taras Shevchenko by the sculptor Oleksandr Kovalev [uk] was placed in the central arch above the entrance.

[15] The interior of Kyiv Opera House is notable for its Italian Neoclassical interior design features, such as Venetian mirrors, gilding, stucco work on the walls and ceilings, marble stairways and mosaic floors; velvet armchairs, and subtle lighting.